Women in the media

In nearly every ad we are exposed to today there will be a scantily clad dressed woman. Why is this? Most would say because sex sells. But what people don’t realize is that it is effecting women all across the world in negative ways and sucking their happiness with themselves right out of them. I would say that ads like these start effecting women in their childhood years when they begin being exposed to advertisements, magazines, movies, and modeling. Even Disney movies are at fault here for the way they portray their princesses with slim bodies and long beautiful hair. This causes young girls to want to be pretty like the princesses they see in their favorite movies and this is only the start. When girls reach teenage years they see make-up ads, clothing ads, and movie stars who are all so unbelievably skinny and imperfection free that it would be impossible to really look like that. This gives girls an unrealistic idea of what beauty is. They begin thinking that the only way to obtain beauty is to become thin and this is what leads many of our girls to developing eating disorders and depression. An expert on this subject by the name of Jean Kilburn has videos called “Killing us softly” that express just how serious of an issue this has become. These videos can be found on her website jeankilbourne.com and are a great watch on the subject.

My main issue with the way women are portrayed is the fact that there are so many eating disorders occurring but nothing is being done. If we know that girls are being so effected by these unreal photos of women then why do companies continue to advertise in this way? It really makes no sense to me. Something desperately needs to be done so that our girls and women are no longer trying to obtain a body image that is impossible unless extreme measures are taken.